Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/553

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NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1917
519

Organization in New York State—Mrs. Raymond Brown, chairman. Campaign district chairman, Mrs. F. J. Tone. Rural assembly district leader, Mrs. Willis G. Mitchell. Election district captain, Mrs. Frederick Edey.

From the Organization to the Voter—Mrs. Laidlaw.

Organization and Campaign Work in New York City—Miss Mary Garrett Hay, chairman. Assembly district leader, Mrs. Charles L. Tiffany. Election district captain, Mrs. Seymour Barrett.

State Departmental Work: Teachers—Miss Katharine D. Blake, chairman. Industrial: Miss Rose Schneiderman, proxy for chairman.

Speakers in War Time—Mrs. Victor Morawetz, chairman of speakers' bureau.

Financing a State Campaign—Mrs. Ogden Mills Reid, treasurer.

Winning New York—Mrs. Norman deR. Whitehouse, State president.

The many phases of this remarkable campaign, which won the State of largest population and opened the way to certain victory in Congress, were presented in a most interesting manner. In speaking of the big city where the fight was actually won, Miss Hay, chairman of the committee, said: "We won, first, because of a continuous campaign in New York City begun eight years ago. On election day in 1915, about midnight, when we knew the amendment had not carried, we decided to have another campaign and began it the next day. Second, we won because of organization along district political lines. No State should ever go into a campaign unless the women are willing to organize in this way and stick to it. It was not the five borough leaders but the 2,080 precinct captains who carried the city. The campaign represented an immense amount of work in many fields. There were 11,085 meetings reported to the State officers and many that were never reported. Women of all classes labored together. 'If you want to reach the working men,' said Rose Schneiderman, 'remember that it is the working women who can reach them.' The campaign cost $682,500. This sum, which lasted for two years and covered the whole State, was less than half the amount spent in three months in New York City that year to elect a Mayor. The largest individual gift to the New York City campaign was $10,000 from Mrs. Dorethy Whitney Straight. Most of the money was given in small sums and represented innumerable sacrifices."